The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) is calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to allow the implementation of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act in its entirety by tomorrow.

This comes after Ramaphosa’s decision to postpone the implementation of two contentious sections of the Act.

Yesterday, Sadtu said the postponement was based solely on the objections of Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube and her political party, the Democratic Alliance (DA).

The union also threatened legal action if the outstanding clauses were not integrated.

Sadtu National spokesperson Nomusa Cembi says, “The 13th of December, as Sadtu we’d like to see the President operationalising these two- sections. He put them in abeyance, when he signed the BELA Bill into an Act and gave 90 days for consultations and he said if no agreement was reached after 90 days, he will implement the clauses as they are.”

Cembi adds, “So, we’d like to see him implementing these clauses as they are because we feel these clauses are lawful, they’re constitutional, they’re correct, all legal processes were followed to reach this level.”

PODCAST: Interview with Cembi on SA fm’s The Morning Brief Programme on the BELA Act:

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